


Swinging Slightly Behind

by Ink_stained_quills



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Oblivious Iwaizumi Hajime, background Kyohaba, established Kyohaba, everyone's aware but him, huh that's a tag, iwaizumi's gay crisis, iwaoi - Freeform, lmao i had to do one with this song i just, merry fricken Christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21972154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ink_stained_quills/pseuds/Ink_stained_quills
Summary: Aliens, overworking himself, whining, those are intrinsic parts to Oikawa.  Iwaizumi knows this, knows his best friend better than he knows himself at times - and now he's got to figure out his own emotions a bit better.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru
Comments: 11
Kudos: 153





	1. How To Make A Proper Net

**Author's Note:**

> God I'm soft for Iwaoi... there's only like 1 more part to the model au, Kyoyachi, but I haven't started it yet... it's okay
> 
> Hope everyone's having a good week! 
> 
> Song: Aliens Exist by Blink 182

xxx

“What are you doing.”

Oikawa glances up, humming cheerfully as he does so. “Iwa-chan! I’m making an alien trap, of course.”

“Of course.” Iwaizumi repeats, heaving a sigh. “Dumbass - you know aliens aren’t -” Then he stops, looks at Oikawa again. The other boy looks… happy. Unguarded, in a way he wasn’t at school. Fourth grade was a cruel place to people who still believed in kid stuff.

“Aren’t what?” Oikawa asks, pressing his lips together as if to say “spit it out”.

“Aliens aren’t…” Iwaizumi picks up string lying next to his friend, grinning. “Aren’t dumb enough to fall into a trap as pitiful as this! Here, string it like this -”

“Oooh!” Squealing, Oikawa grabs his hands, watching as the net begins to weave together. “That’s so cool - where’d you learn to do that, Iwa-chan?”

xxx

“Iwa-chan?”

“Iwa-chan, you’re holding up practice.” Oikawa - eighteen year old Oikawa - flicked Iwaizumi’s forehead. “Look, Yahaba-kun’s setting to Mad Dog-chan already, and we all know he puts that off till last.” Kyotani growls, Yahaba shrugs, and Oikawa simply sticks his tongue out at them.

xxx

Oikawa sitting at home, staring out the window after losing a match.

Oikawa, flipping through alien magazines as he tries to ignore tears.

Oikawa, aliens, crying - 

xxx

“Iwaizumi-san? You okay?” Kunimi looks concerned, and it’s that that snaps him out of his daze.

He waves it off, nods, and gets into position. “Yeah - go ahead, Shittykawa.”

Oikawa gives him a critical look, tips his head back, then tosses the ball. It’s a familiar sight, his best friend leaping into the air like he’s never going to stop - like he’s trying to soar into the stratosphere. Iwaizumi laughs at that, follows the flow of his setter’s arm, and leaps for the ball. It connects with his hand, flies across the court, and lands on the other side. He flexes his fingers, then spins his hand in a circle. Do it again.

So they toss for a while, the twenty minutes left of practice, and then they leave.

“What was that about, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa needles as they walk home. Of course he noticed something was up, he notices everything - which is useful in this instance, because Iwaizumi isn’t sure why he’s feeling odd. He shrugs.

Studying him critically, Oikawa kicks a rock into the road. “Ah, my shoes got scuffed - you haven’t said a word in half an hour.”

“Sorry.” It’s an effort to vocalize, but Iwaizumi’s not sure why. “Need sleep, or something… I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

“You’d better!” The two enter their respective houses, Iwaizumi going up to his room right away with the excuse that “practice tired me out”.

“Tooru isn’t coming over?” His mother spreads jam on bread for his father’s homecoming sandwich. 

“Mmm, no,” he tells her truthfully. “I want to get homework done.” And he does. But he also wants to sit quietly and try to figure out what’s been bothering him during practice… unbidden, his mind returns to Oikawa. Serving, laughing with Hanamaki and Matsukawa, dozing off on Iwaizumi’s shoulder during one of their sleepovers…

His eye twitches, he pulls out his homework, and sets his earbuds in. Figuring things out will have to wait - English comes first. Then his phone buzzes.

Message from Shittykawa   
Iwa-chan

Messages from Shittykawa   
Iwa chaaaaaaan did u do the hw yet

Iwaizumi: I was trying until you texted

Shittykawa: come over?

In the back of his mind he knows that he won’t figure anything out if he goes over (why not?), but Iwaizumi knows he’ll go all the same. Besides, he could use some help with the math.

~~~

Two hours later, homework completed and Mario Cart beaten, Iwaizumi goes back to his house. Dinner is quiet. It’s nice, one of his few reprieves from Oikawa’s whining.

It’s too quiet. Gives him time to think. 

To remember.

To figure out.

xxx

“Iwa-chan, we have a problem. Uh, maybe not a problem, but -” Iwaizumi can hear his best friend’s shaky breath across the phone, and it makes him panic.

“What’s wrong?” - is he at the school, is he hurt, is he in a ditch somewhere - “Did you overpractice again?”

“No,” there’s hesitation through the line, then: “come to the park.”

So he goes, of course. He’ll always go.

Oikawa’s on the swings. It’s raining, and for a moment Iwaizumi feels the drama of it all press at his heart, and he takes a shaky breath.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa starts, eyes closed as he pushes off. “If I was… different from other people, what would you think?”

Iwaizumi relaxes. It’s another one of Oikawa’s 14 year old crises, the “we’re going to a different school, what if it’s different” panics that drive him to call Iwaizumi in the dead of night. He takes the swing next to Oikawa. “I’d think you’re different normally, anyhow. You’re always weird.”

“Mean, Iwa-chan!” Iwaizumi laughs and swings back and forth, both of them building up strength. Oikawa’s just a tiny bit ahead from starting earlier, making Iwaizumi work just a tiny bit harder to catch up, but he does it anyway. He’s always going to stand on even footing with Oikawa.

“What if I said…” The taller boy stares straight ahead, going higher and higher. “That I liked boys?”

Blink. Process. Shrug. “Okay.”

Oikawa turns to look at him, incredulous. “Okay?”

“Yeah.” Iwaizumi huffs a laugh. “You’re such a drama queen.”

In their first year of high school, Oikawa gets a boyfriend. It’s not someone Iwaizumi really knows, so it doesn’t affect him when they break up. In that respect, he thinks, it’s just like with girls. What does it matter, anyway? Oikawa is still the snot nosed brat searching for aliens.

xxx

He wakes up. There’s a lump of ice in his chest, making him feel cold - Iwaizumi presses backwards into his blankets, feeling the ice melt and trickle away. He’s not one for metaphors, but… it felt like something he can’t describe.

He goes to school. It’s normal (but not really, because his eyes stray to Oikawa far more than normal and he doesn’t know why). Matsukawa and Hanamaki give him knowing looks, Oikawa doesn’t seem to know what’s going on - but for some reason, Iwaizumi thinks that’s probably a good thing.

His skin burns when his best friend touches him.

~~~

“So,” Hanamaki begins, “have you figured it out yet?”

Iwaizumi jerks back like he’s been scalded, staring at his friend. “Figured out what?”

“So that’s a no.” Matsukawa shrugs, finishes tying his shoelaces, and pats Iwaizumi on the shoulder. 

“What, guys? Seriously, if there’s something I should know, tell me.”

The other two simply exchange knowing looks, pick up their stuff, and leave. As a parting gift, Hanamaki calls back, “Oikawa figured this out waaaaay earlier than you. Thought you were supposed to have common sense?”

“No, no, my dear Makki,” Matsukawa corrects, “it’s because our captain is so self aware.”

“That’s the nice way to put it.”

The door closes.

“Fine, don’t tell me.” he complains, then tugs off his shirt to swap it for his gym uniform. His gaze skims over his arms - huh, he’s still got a bit of summer tan - before he hears the door open again. 

“So then I tell him - oh, hey, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa’s speaking cheerily to their underclassmen before turning to greet Iwaizumi, gaze skipping off him quickly. Iwaizumi feels exposed somehow, though nobody’s looking and he’s changed here countless times before.

Maybe it’s because no one’s looking? He feels ignored, yet every fiber of his body feels charged, raw, on edge. Letting out a snarl, Iwaizumi thinks he can understand how Kyotani feels - letting out aggression through vocal noise and whatnot. Although his kohai had been doing better lately…

“Hey, Kyotani,” he calls when the other player walked in. “Could I talk to you?”

They step out into the hallway. Kyotani tilts his head, the closest thing to an invitation Iwaizumi is going to get. “I wanted to ask, ah… do you have any anger management tips?” 

The boy raises a single eyebrow. Well, now Iwaizumi felt foolish. “Not… anger management, but do you ever feel fidgety? Too much energy… or something.” He hesitates for a moment. Does this make sense? “Sorry, it’s just that you seem to be calmer lately.”

Kyotani flushes abruptly, shrugs, and then sees who’s coming up the hallway. It’s Yahaba - the one Oikawa’s been training to be next year’s setter and captain. Yahaba’s talking to Watari, then looks at Iwaizumi and Kyotani. Iwaizumi nods to him, then looks back at Kyotani -

Oh, he thinks. That is what seeing someone you love looks like.

(Who do I look at like that?)

Then Kyotani and Yahaba are turning away from each other, Yahaba with a goofy smile twitching around his lips that Watari teases him for, Kyotani with a much calmer look in his eyes.

“You know what, Koytani?” Iwaizumi tells him. “Never mind. I get it, and I think your way isn’t going to work for me.” The other boy pinks, but doesn’t bother denying it as Iwaizumi enters the gym.

“Iwaizumi-san!”

He turns back. “Hmm?”

Kyotani debates, then speaks as he rushes past him into the gym. “I think it could work for you. If you figure out what the rest of us knew months ago.”

What does that mean?

xxx

“Oikawa?” He’s asleep on Iwaizumi’s shoulder, the result of a Godzilla marathon. Iwaizumi’s not sure how he can sleep through all the screaming, but maybe that’s because the volume’s been slowly turned down.

Iwaizumi chuckles, turns on the next movie, and shifts slightly so Oikawa can sleep more comfortably. He tells himself it’s because it’ll be him who has to listen to all the complaining the next day if Oikawa’s neck gets stiff.

(That’s it, right?)

xxx

“Oikawa!” he yells across the gym, waving a roll of athletic tape. “You do your fingers yet?”

“Mmm, no...”

“Moron,” Iwaizumi mutters, bringing the tape over.

Oikawa’s talking to Yahaba, giving instructions for a kind of set they haven’t tried in official matches yet. Iwaizumi, accepting his fate, start taping his best friend’s fingers. His tongue slips out of his mouth, focusing on his task, as he tries to tune out the other two players. Vaguely he registers that Yahaba’s stopped talking.

“Christ,” Yahaba comments, “you’re oblivious.”

“Shut up, Yahaba-chan.”

Yahaba simply turns away, grinning in a slightly hopeless way. “It’s not my fault everyone can see it but him!”

“Wha?” Looking up, Iwaizumi casts his eyes around the room. “Why’s everyone stopped talking?”

Why is the entire team looking at him.

“Ah, Iwaizumi-san?” coughs Kindaichi. “You know Oikawa-san can do that himself, right?”

“Yeah, but...“ Iwaizumi hesitates. He’s got no excuse - hell, he doesn’t even know why he’s doing it. “Well, I’m doing it now.”

Hanamaki pushes his face into Matsukawa’s arm. “Make it stop, Mattsun!”

Oikawa’s turned red (every time he blushes, his entire face shifts colors. He’s pale, so it’s very obvious.) and he waves his hand in the air. “Get back to practicing!”

“Why does everyone keep saying weird things?” Iwaizumi snaps, fed up with everyone knowing something he doesn’t.

“Well…” Oikawa starts, “what are they saying?”

For some reason, Iwaizumi’s nervous. “Nothing. Never mind.”

~~~

Message from Shittykawa   
You okay? 

Iwaizumi: yeah just feel weird idk

Shittykawa: don’t get sick Iwa-chan!

Shittykawa: you’ll be even uglier then

Iwaizumi: guess you’ll have to be pretty enough for both of us

Iwaizumi almost throws his phone. 

“Why did I send that?” he mumbles, fidgeting with his pencil. “That’s not very normal.”

“Normal’s not necessarily a default setting, you know.” Yahaba’s standing behind him, looking sympathetic. 

“You’re here? Iwaizumi asks. “Wait, do you have class right now?”

“I’ve got lunch the same time as you.”

“Ah,” he says, like this explains everything.

They sit in silence for a few moments, then - “Iwaizumi-san, do you know why you’ve been acting odd the past few days?”

Iwaizumi jolts. “Ah - no?”

“Well,” Yahaba says, “that makes things harder. Gotta suck for you, huh?” Iwaizumi almost sobs - yes, it sucks! He doesn’t know what’s going on, and he hates that everyone else seems to know. “Have you been thinking about anyone more?”

“What?” Iwaizumi blinks. “What does that have to do with anything?” Oikawa’s face pops into his head, making him freeze, but he tries to focus on his kohai -

xxx

Oikawa’s face, far too close to his own

Pale fingers gliding over his cheekbones

Brown eyes brown hair

xxx

He chokes.

“Iwaizumi-san,” Yahaba tells him, “I think you’re in love.”

Iwaizumi can’t move.

That’s. Not right? Then he pictures Oikawa’s hands, remembering the feel of them in his own - 

Oh no.

His voice seems to stop working, and he makes a few strangled noises before whispering, “Yahaba?”

“Yes, Iwaizumi-san?”

“I think,” Iwaizumi tells him, “everyone would be happier if you hadn’t told me that.”

Yahaba just looks at him, inscrutable. “I don’t think that’s the case.”


	2. Changing Hearts, Changing Friendships

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... updating twice in one day huh
> 
> This one's shorter, but I still liked writing it! Kinda angsty tbh... I think this is gonna be 3 chapters but tbh that might grow.
> 
> Song: Fools by Lauren Aquilina

Iwaizumi settles backwards against the gym wall, painstakingly putting on his shoes. It doesn’t take too long, and people are staring, but that’s forty more seconds he doesn’t have to look at his best friend and think

I’m in love with him.

Oikawa himself doesn’t make it easy - hadn’t made it easy, throughout the day… he’d been constantly around, making Iwaizumi’s cheeks flush and heart ache. Still, it looks like he’s going to have to live with it. Iwaizumi can hardly ignore it anymore, but he can keep it buried. He won’t let it show - affect the team, affect their friendship.

“Conceal, don’t feel,” he mutters to himself, thinking of the American movie “Frozen”. (He’d watched that with Oikawa’s nephew a few years ago.) And herein lies the struggle - everything leads back to Oikawa. That’s the drawback to knowing someone so intimately, you know them as well as you know yourself - better, in Iwaizumi’s case.

“Iwaizumi?” Hanamaki pokes him in the back. “Hey, buddy… you’re muttering to yourself and laughing, and that worries us.”

“You’re giving me grey hairs, man!” Matsukawa complains. “What will the children think?”

Glad of the distraction, Iwaizumi focuses on them. “Children?”

“Why, Kindaichi and Kunimi, of course!” Matsukawa gasps. Kindaichi looks up in the background, then shrugs. All three of the older boys walk out of the changing room, talking amongst themselves, and head into the gym.

The smack of volleyballs are audible. “Hey, Iwa-chan! Makki, Matsun, stretch!” Waving, Oikawa summons all three to his side.

Iwaizumi can’t move.

Almost robotically, he starts towards his best friend, Matsukawa and Hanamaki giving him concerned looks. “Aw, geez…” Hanamaki grabs his arm and pulls him away, shoving him into a corner.

Iwaizumi looks up at them, startled. “What?”

“Don’t you ‘what’ us.” Matsukawa pats him on the shoulder. “Tell us what’s going on in your pea brain.”

“Ah, it’s nothing.” Against his will, Iwaizumi’s eyes turn toward Oikawa, who at first had looked over at them puzzled, but was quickly distracted by his kohai. He’s showing Watari a detail about setting, Yahaba looking on nearby, and his skin is tinted slightly pink from exertion. How long has he been practicing?

His gait is a bit off, too, movements slightly stiff. Moron, Iwaizumi thinks, didn’t you stretch? Did you sleep weird last night? Then he jolts back into the present, where Matsukawa is whistling. “Damn,” he says, “did our resident blockhead figure himself out at long last?”

“Stupid Yahaba and his stupid realizations during lunch.” Iwaizumi glares halfheartedly at the wall. He’s not really mad at Yahaba, he’s mad at himself - for feeling this way in general, for not being able to hide it, for taking too long to realize.

“Poor, poor emotionally constipated Iwa-chan,” Hanamaki leans against Matsukawa as if setting up for a skit. Iwaizumi’s eye twitches. “Look,” his friend continues, “why don’t you just… try him? You might be pleasantly surprised.”

“Or,” Iwaizumi counters, “he might get so alarmed that our friendship, the team, is affected.”

“You give yourself too much credit.” Matsukawa tells him at the same time Hanamaki lets out a shriek of “You’re both so intensely annoying!”

“Guys?” Oikawa calls, never one to let them skimp out on practice for long.

“Iwaizumi, you -”

“No,” he tells them, “I’m going to have to deal with it myself.”

“For how long?” Hanamaki demands.

Iwaizumi’s gaze trails Oikawa’s form, a fond smile tracing his face tinged by sadness. “I’ve managed so far. If it takes my entire life to get over him… I’ll deal with it as we go.” Maybe that’s a naive approach to first love - no matter what happens, it’s not like you’ll never love again - but Oikawa, he can’t help feeling, is different.

He goes to practice. 

Oikawa wraps his arms around his neck.

He doesn’t react.

~~~

“Hey, Iwa-chan?”

Iwaizumi turns to him. “Mmm?”

“Why don’t you -” Oikawa hesitates. “You haven’t hit me in, like, a week. It’s weird. I mean, you’re always weird, but -” Iwaizumi looks away, reflecting over the past few days. At first, he’d tried to keep physical contact to a minimum, but lately… he felt guilty for letting Oikawa touch him, knowing it meant something very different than he wanted it to. But he couldn’t force himself to give it up.

He smiles. “Do you want me to apologize?”

“Shut up, Iwa-chan.”

xxx

“Oikawa?” Iwaizumi opens the door to his best friend’s house. “Did you get -” His voice sticks in his throat, making him choke on the words. “Did you get into Shiratorizawa?”

“Yeah.” Oikawa sounds subdued for just a moment, then he flashes a peace sign. “You?” They both already know the answer. “Well, how about Aoba Johsai?”

Iwaizumi smiles sadly. “I did. Maybe we can play against each other -” Oikawa pulls out his ticket into Shiratorizawa, one of the top schools in the prefecture, and rips it up.

Iwaizumi shrieks in horror. “What did you just do?”

“The right decision, Iwa-chan!” Oikawa tells him, beaming that smile that’s becoming all too rare when they’re with anyone else. “We’re going to Sejioh!”

“You’re stupid.” Iwaizumi grumbles.

Oikawa’s eyes bug out comically. “Whaaaaa? But I couldn’t go to a different high school than Iwa-chan, that wouldn’t make any sense -” Iwaizumi hugs him, shutting him up.

“You’re still stupid, Oikawa.

...thank you.”

xxx

Iwaizumi wakes up with tears in his eyes, and he wipes them away. What time is it? Consulting the clock, he discovers that it’s three in the morning. Far too early.

He hasn’t dreamed about that in a long time.

~~~

“Oikawa? It’s four in the morning - I just got back to sleep.”

The line crackles, Oikawa’s voice coming through strong. “I had a dream.”

“Mmm,” Iwaizumi grunts. “Haven’t we all?”

“No,” Oikawa insists, “remember when we were picking high schools?”

In an instant, Iwaizumi feels the lump of ice return to his sternum. “Ah - what?”

“I ripped up my Shitorizawa letter, and we decided on -”

“You decided for us, technically -”

Oikawa whispers over him. “And it made me remember something. We’re going to different universities, right?”

“Is - is four am the right time to talk about this?” Iwaizumi moistens his lips, tries to push the thought out of his mind.

“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says sadly, “do you think you could talk about this in daylight? Face to face? Because it’d all just seem too..” Too real. He knows the feeling.

“I’m going to miss your dumb voice!” He blurts. “And the way you talk. Well, maybe not all the time.”

Oikawa’s quiet for a moment. “Iwa-chan…”

“I’m talking now, shittykawa.”

A laugh that sounds more like a sob. “Fine.”

“I like the way your hair matches your eyes.” Iwaizumi’s determined - he might never get another chance. This isn’t even him confessing. This is what he likes about Oikawa, and he has to let him know.

“I hate that!” Oikawa yelps.

“I think you’re at your best self around your nephew. But I like it better when…” He hesitates.

“Yeah?”

“When it’s just us. And you’re talking about aliens, and we’re watching those stupid movies, and you smile like.” It’s silent for a moment. “It’s like the sun rises.”

Static. “Oh.”

“We’re not talking about this at school.” Iwaizumi insists.

“Wait!” 

Iwaizumi doesn’t hang up. He’s frozen.

“I, ah - you have some admirable qualities.”

Staring down at the phone, Iwaizumi pulls a face. “Wow. I stayed on the phone for this?”

Oikawa quietly wails. “Wait! You mixed me all up with your words, and now I’ve got to come up with something on the fly!“

“Right, I forgot you’re mister “I rehearse my captain-y speeches in the mirror”.”

“Bully, Iwa-chan.” They sit in comfortable silence for a moment, then Oikawa whispers something so quietly Iwaizumi’s not sure he’s supposed to hear it. “Everything I want to say could break something.”

“Break what?”

He can picture Oikawa right then, head covered by blankets, staring at the glow of his phone, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Iwaizumi gets up and stands by the window - only to find Oikawa doing the same thing. He puts his hand up to the glass, waiting for him to speak.

Oikawa wraps his arms around himself, staring into Iwaizumi’s eyes through the window. “Break us.”

“Maybe it won’t break us.” Iwaizumi traces circles on the cold pane, looking at the phone instead of his friend. “Maybe it’ll just… change things?”

“You don’t think too many things are changing already?”

He looks up. “I think - if we changed. It wouldn’t destroy us? We’d be okay, Oikawa.”

Silence. “Hajime?” Iwaizumi shivers, something he’s sure Oikawa can see from here, and flushes.

His voice goes raspy. “Yeah, Tooru?” The air feels electrically charged, and then a car passes by their houses, light flashing up and illuminating them each in turn. The setter blinks, snapped out of whatever trance the two of them were in.

“Ah - it’s late! You’re probably tired of talking to me, anyhow!” Oikawa twists away from the window, putting his hands underneath is chin. “And Iwa-chan needs all the beauty rest he can get!”

“Oikawa -”

“Bye, Iwa-chan ~” Then the other boy hangs up. Iwaizumi’s left staring at the “call ended” symbol and wondering what would have happened next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr: socially-acceptable-username


	3. Resolutions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration was good today, hmm?
> 
> Song: Downtown Girl by Hot Chelle Ray

“WHAT happened?” Yahaba spits out his milk, making Iwaizumi shift back to avoid it. “Sorry. But he hung up on you?”

Iwaizumi shugs, frustrated. “Yeah. A car passed, and we just… I don’t know. Couldn’t get back to sleep, either.”

Kyotani pulls a face. “Oikawa’s a dumbass. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“Don’t call Oikawa-san a dumbass!” Yahaba sniffs. “But yes.”

“Do you have lunch right now?” Iawizumi asks suspiciously, looking at Kyotani.

Kyotani shrugs. “What?” Yahaba exclaims. “Are you suggesting that I smuggled my boyfriend into a different lunch to help with your crisis, even though he knows he has a math test today?”

“That’s exactly what we did.” Kyotani tells Iwaizumi, who winces.

In a vain attempt to be a good upperclassman, he tells them, “You shouldn’t be skipping class.”

“But I’M here.” Yahaba says, like this settles things. Kyotani just shrugs and lets Yahaba lean into his side, sniggering.

Iwaizumi shakes his head, abandoning any pretense of stubborness. He really does need their help, after all. Even if it hurts to see what they have. “How did you two get together, anyhow? Didn’t Yahaba throw you against a wall?”

Kyotani growls, staring into the distance. Yahaba begins to wheeze, laughing like he’ll never stop, burying his face in Kyotani’s side. Iwaizumi begins to wonder whether he’s killed Yahaba, which would lead to Kyotani attempting to kill him, but he’s granted a reprieve when the younger setter sits up straight.

“Okay,” he begins, “it all starts on a normal day. I get out of practice -”

“Do we have to tell this story every time.”

“Yes!” Yahaba tells him, beaming. “So we’re out of practice, and then Kyotani and I walk to the store. And he’s like - “Remember that time you threw me against a wall?” And, of course, I said yes. Best moment of my life. And he went: “Ever since that day I’ve been madly in love with you.””

“That,” Kyotani says, horrified, “is NOT what I said.”

“What did you REALLY say, then?” Yahaba asks in the manner of a man who can be smug, knowing that the alternative is worse than the lie.

Now bright red, Kyotani makes the wise decision to shut up. Iwaizumi decides he doesn’t want to know. “Anyhow,” Yahaba continues, “we’re together now which is more than you can say.”

Iwaizumi winces, sulking slightly. “Don’t call Iwaizumi-san out like that.” Kyotani says, but he’s smirking.

“Hey, if you can call Oikawa-san a dumbass -”

“Which he is -”

“- then I can inform Iwaizumi-san he needs to suck it up and confess before this starts leaking into practice more than it already is.”

Kyotani puts his cold water bottle down Yahaba’s shirt, the setter screams and dollops mustard on him in retaliation, and Iwaizumi wonders how his life came to this moment.

xxx

“This is Oikawa,” Iwaizumi’s mother tells him. She’s gesturing to a boy with brown hair, brown eyes, and very light skin. He’s tearing up already.

“Mom,” he whispers, tugging on her skirt (he’s not very tall at six years old), “he looks boring.”

“You’re boring!” Oikawa retorts, making Iwaizumi equal parts embarrassed at being overheard and annoyed that this crybaby could think he was boring.

He scowls. “Am not!”

“Are too!”

Oikawa’s mother quickly intervenes, sensing oncoming conflict. “Ah, Tooru - show Iwaizumi where you saw the aliens?”

His face lights up, eyes sparkling, and he turns back to Iwaizumi, anger forgotten in the face of alien adventure. “Yeah!”

“Fine,” Iwaizumi grumbles with a shove from his mother. “Show me.” He’s not terribly impressed with the whole idea (their mothers make them hold hands because they’re so young, even though Iwaizumi’s plenty old). Oikawa’s hand is soft and warm as he pulls the other boy along, and when he looks back Iwaizumi is treated to his first proper glance at Oikawa.

He’s grinning, running across the field with no regard for his clothing - something Iwaizumi’s sure he heard him complaining about earlier - and his smile is blinding. His eyes catch the sun at an angle that makes them look almost amber, and Iwaizumi decides that fine, maybe he’s not so bad if he’s got interests like this.

Maybe he’ll even watch old Godzilla movies with him.

xxx

Iwaizumi turns the volume down on the movie. “Oikawa, are you asleep again?”

True to form, the other boy is zonked out on his shoulder, the two having spent an exhausting afternoon avoiding certain subjects. Onscreen, Godzilla roars, people scream, and Iwaizumi hears the doorbell ring.

“I’ll get it!” Oikawa’s mother calls, makes pleasant conversation with the postman, then enters the den. Whispering, she sets an envelope on the table. “Hajime?”

Iwaizumi nods, adjusting his arm so that Oikawa can sleep better. “What’s up, auntie?” He’s been calling her auntie since age six, at this point they’re basically family.

“You and Tooru - you’re going to different universities, right?” He freezes, nods. “Then you’ve only got so much time to say - anything you want to tell him. Don’t squander it, hmm?” She gives him a small smile, the one that says she knows your secrets, but won’t tell.

He wonders how long everyone’s known but him. “... yeah.” Oikawa’s mother pats his head and leaves the room.

“Oikawa.” He whispers again, poking his shoulder. “Wake up.”

Oikawa nuzzles farther into his shoulder, mouth somehow ending up at his throat. Iwaizumi’s throat goes dry. “Hajime,” he mutters.

“Yeah.” Gently, he lets his hands trace up Oikawa’s shoulders. “Wake u-”

Oikawa looks up, brushing their noses together like they do this all the time. (They don’t. Even his oblivious ass would have figured it out, then. Also, his heart would have exploded by now.) “Hajime - am I still dreaming?”

He manages a few words. “That depends - what are you dreaming about?”

“Something good.” Oikawa tells him, eyes dropping to Iwaizumi’s mouth. 

Holy shit, he thinks, this is an invitation if I’ve ever seen one. He carefully brings his hands up to Oikawa’s cheeks, breathless. “Your eyes really are pretty.”

“Yeah?” Oikawa’s shifting so his hands are on Iwaizumi’s chest, and he’s certain Oikawa can feel his heartbeat pounding out of his body. “Well, what else, Iwa-chan?”

“Gold digger,” he tells the other boy fondly, then kisses him.

Oikawa hums something under his breath, a sort of sigh mixed with a laugh, and wraps his fingers into Iwaizumi’s hair. His lips part softly and then Oikawa’s kissing him properly, and he’s forgotten how to breath - how did he used to breath?

Still, breathing seems unnecessary if Oikawa keeps kissing him like that.

“Tooru?” Oikawa’s mother enters the room with pretzels, turning the lights on. “Hey kiddo, is Hajime staying for dinner or what - you need to get up OH my goodness!” Her hand flies to her eyes, painfully embarrassed.

Iwaizumi covers his face, horrified. “Mother,” Oikawa complains, “we were kind of in the middle of something?”

“I can see that!” She tells him archly, turning around. “I’ll assume he’s staying for dinner then -”

“No, no!” Iwaizumi stutters, trying to think of something more terrifyingly awkward than sitting at dinner with Oikawa’s parents after he was caught making out with their son. “I’ll go home, sorry!”

Mrs. Oikawa turns around, smirking. “Hajime,” she says, “I’ve been expecting this for about seven years. You’re staying for dinner.”

“Ah.” Iwaizumi blushes. “I see. Thanks?”

From his perch on Iwaizumi’s chest, Oikawa grins. “You can stay for dinner, right, Iwa-chan?”

“I suppose I have no choice but to suffer a few more hours of you today.”

“Mean, Iwa-chan!”

Neither move.

~~~

When they enter practice, the air is tense. It’s expectant, the whole team waiting for a resolution (or so it feels). They let them suffer through stretching, not speaking, before Oikawa takes charge of the gym. “Spiking practice over there - Iwa-chan, practice extra with Kunimi, will you?”

Iwaizumi just nods - there’s always a reason - as Oikawa continues. “Yahaba-kun, we’re going to practice the killer serve today, mm?” The group disperses, and Hanamaki grabs Iwaizumi.

“Dude,” Matsukawa interrogates, “details?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Iwaizumi tells him.

“Oh, and Iwa-chan?” Iwaizumi turns back to Oikawa before they part, expecting a final instruction. Instead, Oikawa grabs Iwaizumi by the face and pulls him in close.

Iwaizumi shakes his head slowly. “You’re going to corrupt the first years.”

“The first years,” Oikawa announces, “will get over it.” He presses their lips together, and when they separate a minute later Iwaizumi registers the sound of cheering. When he turns, he can see the entire gym (so he wasn’t imagining it!) looking over.

Yahaba, practically crying into Watari’s back, is mumbling something like “I thought they were going to kill me.” Watari seems mostly unbothered, though he does flash them a thumbs up as he shoves his friend into Kyotani’s arms. Neither of them seem bothered by this development, Kyotani giving a nod to Iwaizumi.

Hanamaki and Matsukawa are screaming. The first years seem confused, embarrassed, but mostly just resigned and congratulatory. Everyone else just looks thankful they won’t have to deal with pining anymore, which Iwaizumi thinks is fair.

“You two going to get to work or not?” Their coach calls, eyebrow raised.

“Welp, time for practice!” Oikawa boops Iwaizumi’s nose, something he immediately resents, and walks to the net. “Don’t miss me too much, Iwa-chan~”

Iwaizumi throws a volleyball at him, turns back to spiking practice, and allows himself a smile.

It did feel pretty good to do that. Just… maybe next time, not in front of an entire volleyball team full of people? He glances at Oikawa, accepting the fact that his destiny was most likely going to include many more scenes like this.

Eh, Iwaizumi thought, shrugging, that wouldn’t be so bad.

xxx

“Iwa-chan?” Oikawa asks, poking his head through the doorway. “You ready for graduation?”

“Yeah, give me a second.” Iwaizumi pulls out an old picture, one taken when they were six. Oikawa’s crawling through a bush in order to find an alien he’d sworn was there, and Iwaizumi’s attempting to drag the other boy out of harm's way by his feet. It’d been an interesting day, even if they hadn’t found any aliens. He slips the picture into his pocket, right over his heart.

He crosses the room to grab Oikawa’s hand. “Ready now.”

They climb into the car and drive - they might be going to different colleges, but they could handle it.

They’d handle it together, and Iwaizumi thought that was the most important thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr: socially-acceptable-username

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: socially-acceptable-username


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